Farming is anything but routine, there's constant adjustment to conditions, the inherent connection to nature, risk mitigation from that entropy, and the ingenuity required to make it work. It's the total opposite of the lifeless drudgery OP describes.

That's true in many cases, but the OP reminds me of a friend that spends 4 hours a day with devotionals and church related stuff trying to overcome his depression, a depression created by a lack of accomplishment which has been a direct result of sticking to a routine for fear of change.

Routine is easy, routine is picking low-hanging fruit to avoid challenge. Routine is an exhausting battle against entropy that cannot be won, making the failure one sought to avoid guaranteed.